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Abstract

We have experimentally demonstrated that because of intensity clamping, when the laser peak power is higher than the critical power for self-focusing, further increase of the laser power cannot result in corresponding increase of the laser ablation rate of a metallic sample placed in gases. The ablation rate will finally approach a stabilized value. Also, the experimental technique implemented in our work could be potentially used to measure the self-focusing critical power and the nonlinear refractive index.